The Nevada Board of Regents, which oversees the state’s eight universities, voted on Friday, December 2, to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) Working Definition of Antisemitism for use in its anti-discrimination training and education. It is the first state higher education department to take such a proactive measure.
The IHRA definition, established by leading experts in the field and adopted and/or endorsed by over 900 institutions and agencies, including 35 democratic countries, 28 states, and even the Global Imams Council, takes into account both contemporary and classic antisemitism. It includes examples of how antisemitism may manifest today, including attacks involving Israel, often seen as the Jewish collective, either by applying classic slurs against the Jewish state rather than the Jewish individual or targeting Jews for their real or imagined connection to Israel.
With antisemitism reaching alarming levels, especially on campuses, and administrations sometimes not active or informed enough to identify and address the unacceptable tolerance for bias and discrimination against Jewish students, the Board of Regents hopes to clarify the understanding of antisemitism and afford Jewish students equal treatment. “Antisemitism is at crisis levels nationally, and the Board of Regents wanted to be proactive here and get in front of the problem. By adopting the IHRA definition of antisemitism, we are making a statement that the Nevada System of Higher Education is committed to equal protections for all our students,” said Nevada Regent Byron Brooks, the member who spearheaded the effort.
Roz Rothstein, CEO of StandWithUs, an international educational organization, commends Byron Brooks and the Nevada Board of Regents for their leadership. “We encourage other states to follow Nevada’s lead. Defining antisemitism is an important step towards defeating what many call ‘the oldest hatred.’ If we are to take antisemitism seriously, we need to be able to recognize it, not only as it showed itself in 1942 but also as our students face it in 2022.”
